Village Profile Home Page | About our Company | Sales Opportunities | Community eStore | vpmobile.us

Orland Park Village Center

Perhaps nowhere else in Orland Park is the character of the community so thoroughly defined as in its Village Center, a dramatic showcase of structures devoted to community service. Striking for its architecture, the 100-acre Village Center is the focal point of village government, a place for healthful recreation, and a gathering point for business and community interests.

Dedicated in 1989, Village Center is located adjacent to Orland Park’s John Humphrey Sports Complex and a historic, scenic wooded hillside called Humphrey Wood, and it presents a surprising departure from the norm. It is nonpolitical in character – there is no imposing classical ornamentation, no ostentatious effort to look “governmental,” no statuary. Instead, the architecture of the Village Center is visually exciting, elegantly subtle, and remarkably captivating. In character, it looks to the future – not coincidentally one of the prominent roles of government.

The center contains three buildings that surround three sides of a small, picturesque lake. Designed by Ralph Johnson of the architectural firm of Perkins and Will, Village Center structures strongly reflect the influences of Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie school of architecture, as well as the ideas of Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok. The design unifies soft, curving lines and contrasting angular ones to create a memorable visual impact.

The 42,000-square-foot Frederick T. Owens Village Hall is the most prominent of the three buildings, and it houses governmental offices. The building’s ultramodern clock tower soars above the structure and is a point of reference for the surrounding area. U-shaped, the building wraps the offices of Village officials around a two-story lobby, behind which is the two-story meeting room of the Board of Trustees. Windows covering the north wall flood the board room with natural light and create pleasant views of the lake and woods beyond.

The 34,000-square-foot Franklin E. Loebe Recreation Center was named in honor of the late Franklin Loebe who served as Village Treasurer for 65 years, from 1929 until 1994. The Center offers a gymnasium, a mezzanine running track, recreational program offices, a daycare wing, and a two-story lobby.

Dedicated to the late Village Trustee William R. Vogel, the 11,000-square-foot Civic Center contains a large exhibition hall, a unique circular rotunda room, a column-flanked grand hall, the Jane M. Barnes Annex with two meeting rooms, and a terrace overlooking the lake. The Civic Center can accommodate from 10 to 1,000 people for meetings, conventions, and exhibitions. It is also the ideal setting for training seminars; sporting events; trade and consumer shows; and theatrical, cultural, civic, educational, and commercial activities. Many residents have utilized this contemporary facility for private weddings, showers, christenings, and other personal uses such as family reunions.

An arcade-style, covered bridge connects the three buildings and serves as a walkway. It links with a small outdoor amphitheater, located centrally to the Village Hall, Recreation Center, and the Civic Center, which steps downward to the lake.

Newer to the Village Center Complex is another striking edifice, a richly symbolic Veterans’ Memorial designed by world-renowned sculptor Virginio Ferrari and dedicated on Veterans’ Day 1995. The sculpture is entitled “Ara Pace” - Place of Peace.

Four columns support a circular form, connoting all veterans who have served our country and the Village’s endless memory of those from the community who died in service to the nation. Bi-annually, living and deceased veterans’ names are etched into the black granite stones set upright at the base of the memorial sculpture.

The Village Center uniquely defines Orland Park as a sophisticated, striking, inventive, and spirited community with confidence in itself and in its future.